Something More Than Human

People often ask me why I'm so obsessed with cycling.  What it is that draws me to this sport that is nothing but 6 hours of spinning the pedals on a bike?  With three weeks of non-stop cycling before my eyes, I had plenty of time to think about my answer.

And it's the quality of the human spirit in these athletes that I love.  These guys are riding hard every day for 21 days, and yet every day they still have the passion to ride harder than the day before.  Being Australian, one of the traits we value most is hardiness, endurance, that utter tenacity of the soul where you can't give up but instead just keep soldiering on despite all the odds.  We call it the ANZAC Spirit, and we value it above almost all else in people.

These men have that spirit, the GC riders most of all.  Thomas Voeckler is a beautiful example of why I love this sport - he predicted three times over the course of this year's Tour de France that he would lose his yellow jersey at the end of the stage.  Maybe it was a defeatist attitude, or maybe he was just being a realist, but every time, something in Thomas just wouldn't let him give up.  We could all see the grit and determination that made him keep on going, every inch of it clear in the utter pain on his face, somewhere inside himself finding the ability to keep on going despite all else and do something that human beings should not be able to do - be superhuman.

Watching Johnny Hoogerland also had that feeling, but this time the whole world could feel it.  We could see the streams of blood running in rivulets down his legs as he rode to the finish of that horrific stage where he became so intimately acquainted with a barbed-wire fence.  We could see and feel his pain, and yet he clambered out, was back on the bike and began riding after the breakaway.  He needed 33 stitches afterwards, but he was still putting his body and his mind through agony to keep going when any normal person would have collapsed in a sobbing, bleeding heap by the side of that road.  These men have some celestial ability to transcend normal human limits and go beyond, time and again, to be heroes, legends and champions - glimpses of the heights to which humanity can ascend.

And of course, our golden boy, Cadel.  When his bike broke down riding up Alpe d’Huez with Andy and Alberto, everyone thought he’d lost the Tour de France.  Even I was dubious.  Trying to make up a minute and half on the world’s top climbers racing up a mountain is almost foolhardy in its impossibility.  It’s like running after a car – you’re never gonna get there, unless you can fly.  And Cadel Evans showed us he can.  He achieved with ease what we were all saying was impossible, and yet every time we apply the word ‘impossible’ to something these men do, they find a way to prove us wrong again.  It was the feat of a winner and a champion – and now he’s both.

Just like the Greeks who lived near Mount Olympus, catching glimpses of the gods from time to time, this proximity to greatness touches us all.  There is something inspirational about the men who possess this magical ability to be more than they are, just for a little while.  The 6 hours of mindless pedalling merely gives us the context so we can truly appreciate when they have one of these man-as-god Olympian moments.  It is the humanity in cycling that draws me - and the proof that sometimes, if we only try hard enough, for just a little while we can be something more than human.

Stage 21 - Creteil => Paris Champs-Elysees

The final day of the Tour de France.  Traditionally uncontested, the ride up the Champs-Elysees is intended as nothing more than a victory lap for the deserving winner and a final chance for the sprinters to do their thing and cement, claim or lose the green jersey.

And what a victory lap it was.  Cadel Evans was revelling in the glory of his win, making history in more than one way.  Samuel Sanchez and Pierre Rolland were also enjoying their day in the sun, both figurative and literal, as the peloton rolled along the roads from Creteil into central Paris.  With another sprint stage still to come Mark Cavendish's hold on the green jersey wasn't certain, but 62 points ahead of his nearest challenger, Movistar's JJ Rojas,  the much-coveted maillot was likely to remain his.

The day had a rather sombre start to it, with the peloton all pausing for a minute's silence to commemorate the tragic events in Norway two days earlier.  Then it was back on the bikes and pedalling again towards the end of the 98th Tour de France.  For the first half of the race no-one was taking the 'race' part very seriously, the jersey winners riding along congratulating each other, Cadel leading the peloton with his team BMC and sharing the traditional glass of champagne with his DS, John Lelangue.

All camaraderie was out the window once they hit the Champs-Elysees, though.  The pace began to pick up and there was a subtle shift in the demeanour of the riders leading the peloton down France's most famous street.  BMC disappeared back into the main peloton, protecting Cadel from any last-minute mishaps, while the other teams began trying to build a breakaway.

It wasn't until aptly-named British Sky sprinter Ben Swift decided to take his chance that anyone got away.  Followed by four others, they took advantage of the peloton's distraction at the intermediate sprint point and bolted away to a 45-second lead with 35 kilometres left to ride.  While most of the teams were uninterested in the sprint, HTC-Highroad and Movistar in particular were keen to fight it out, Cavendish and Renshaw taking 7th and 8th to push 9th-placed José Joaquin Rojas further back in the race for the green sprinter's jersey.

Despite BMC's efforts, Cadel didn't entirely manage to avoid trouble, though.  It wasn't shown on the broadcast, but he revealed later on that as he slowed down to go around a sharp corner, the motorbike in front of him wasn't quite as considered and went over.  Cadel, with the help of his teammates, managed to dodge the toppled motorbike and continued on to finish the stage without trouble.

As the peloton rounded the final corner signalling six kilometres to go the break was still 20 seconds ahead, and it fell to the teams of the sprinters not represented in the break to try and bring it back.  Swift and HTC-Highroad's Lars Bak were the last two to be reeled in at three kilometres to go, and after that the HTC-Highroad Express blazoned a path down the Champs-Elysees with the rest of the 2011 Tour de France peloton in its wake.  With the high pace being set by Tony Martin and Cav's 'pilotfish', Bernie Eisel, it's not surprising that no-one could escape the clutches of the peloton until the Manx Missile was released to take his fifth stage victory of this Tour and his 20th Tour career victory.  My cutie Boasson Hagen (Sky) and Omega Pharma-Lotto's Andre Greipel came a close third and second, followed by Garmin sprinter Tyler Farrar and a surprising fifth in Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek).

And thus ended another gripping, thrilling, heart-rending and triumphant Tour de France.  The first ever winner from both Australia and the Southern Hemisphere stands on the top step of the podium, with the first ever pair of brothers to podium standing to either side.  Cadel has finally combined two second places to make a first, while Andy stands one step down for the third year in a row.  Samuel Sanchez carried off the polka-dot jersey, Cav has finally won his green one, and Alberto Contador was nowhere to be seen, finishing 3:57 down on the overall winner.  French unknown Pierre Rolland stole away with white, Garmin-Cervelo got to stand on the podium with their World Champion as the fastest team, while FDJ's Jeremy Roy (a.k.a. 'our Jeremy') took the prize of 'Supercombativity' - the most aggressive and spirited rider overall.  And while as a devoted Leopard Trek fan girl I would love to see the sky blue and black a step higher up the podium next year, I can't help but have a patriotic feeling that my dear Andy will have a helluva time taking that yellow off Cadel next year.

Stage 20 - Grenoble => Grenoble (Individual Time Trial)

"We are living in momentous times."  Cliched, and probably used so much it's beginning to lose its meaning, but still very very true right now, especially in the cycling world.  The kind and quality of riding and riders that we have seen this Tour is phenomenal and very rarely encountered.

All eyes were always going to be on Cadel Evans and Andy Schleck in this time trial, as the two main rivals for yellow, plus a weather eye out for Fabian Cancellara who was expected to dominate as always.  That doesn't mean there weren't any surprises.  This is the Tour de France.  There always are.

Cancellara was sufficiently far down in the overall standings that he went off reasonably early, and as expected blitzed the field to record the fastest time thus far.  But Cancellara's day was destined to get much worse.  The young Australian from Saxobank-Sungard with an increasing reputation for time-trialling, Richie Porte, soon knocked Cancellara off his pedestal - and he was only the first of many.  The next rider was the biggest surprise - Vacansoleil unknown Thomas de Gendt got up there to knock Porte down to second.

De Gendt's moment in the sun was to be equally short-lived, as Tony Martin, winner of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine time trial that was ridden on the same course, smashed through everyone's times to come home in a stunning 55:33 that claimed the stage.  In perhaps a scary moment for world time trial champion Cancellara, Martin went through the first of three checkpoints just over a minute ahead of the Swiss they call 'Spartacus', suggesting that maybe the Roman's gladiator days are numbered.

Of course the big drawcard of the day was at the very bottom of the start times list.  Alberto Contador, Thomas Voeckler, Cadel Evans, Frank Schleck, Andy Schleck.  Whilst other names like Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervelo) might be thrown into the mix, these five were the ones people were waiting to see, especially as the Tour de France was up for grabs and all of these men wanted it!  But only one of them wanted it badly enough, and only one of them was going to win it.

Contador went out hard and fast, clearly hoping to steal a podium position from one of the top four now that the yellow jersey was out of the question.  A reasonable time trialler, Contador was quick enough to slot in above the time of Thomas de Gendt and secure third place on the stage.  Three minutes further back, Thomas Voeckler, never a good time trialler and usually three minutes off the pace, pulled out one of his best performances in recent years to come 14th, only 2:14 behind Martin.

Meanwhile, behind Voeckler, a battle of the minds was taking place.  Cadel Evans, three minutes ahead of Frank Schleck, who was three minutes ahead of brother Andy, was taking the Luxembourgers to town and making it look easy.  Both the Schleck boys must have exhausted themselves with their attacks in the mountain stages, because though not noted for their time trials, neither was putting up a very good show, and Andy, usually the better time trialler of the two, was coming in at all the checkpoints a few seconds behind his brother!

Australia's golden boy was having the time of his life.  With undoubtedly all of Australia up watching him ride himself towards the yellow, Cadel was riding his own race and following through on the plan made with BMC directeur sportif John Lelangue - alright, forget the GC, let's ride to win the stage.  And so Cadel did.  A paltry seven seconds behind the split of Tony Martin at the first checkpoint, Cadel had commentators whooping when they realised what he was up to.  There were no more discussions of 57 seconds, or 'can Cadel catch up'.  A man who can race over 3,000 kilometres for three weeks and then ride to win a stage is no longer just riding for the stage.  Cadel was boldly going out there and claiming the yellow jersey as his right there and then, and Andy and Frank were letting him.

The defining moment, indeed, the most glorious moment of the whole stage, was at an arbitrary hour somewhere in the middle of their ride.  The SBS coverage had a split screen showing Cadel on the left and Andy on the right, two crouched figures with a time gap written below, initially with Andy's name above with a time gap to the name underneath - Cadel Evans.  Shall I try to describe the moment when the gap ticked down to zero, and then the names suddenly switched - equal on time, but advantage Cadel? I think perhaps not, given the English language doesn't contain words to express the utter elation I felt upon seeing those names switch in a show of faith by the telecast guys for the Aussie champion.  He gratified that faith, by the way - the number started going back up again, all the time advantage Cadel.

Cadel finished second in the stage in 55:40, 2:31 ahead of 17th-placed Andy Schleck and thus claiming the yellow jersey from the younger rider by 1:34.  So, at the finish of the final contested stage of the 2011 Tour de France, Australia's Cadel Evans is wearing the maillot jaune, the grandest prize in world cycling, in that same sport's most famed boulevard.  Short of the most truly catastrophic of...catastrophes, Cadel will be wearing that self-same jersey over the finishing line when he enters the history books as the first ever Australian winner of the Tour de France.  And mention, too, for the brave Schleck brothers, who will be standing either side of Cadel on the podium tomorrow, and fully deserve to be there.  See you in Paris!

Stage 19 - Mondane => Alpe d'Huez

Three days left to go in the Tour de France.  It is close, but not decided yet.  How will that change tonight?  Will we know our winner by tomorrow?  Will we know who's lost?  And who will win on Alpe d'Huez?

Today started with - guess what? - another big breakaway.  This time 14 riders jumped off 10 kilometres from the starting line at Mondane, though they weren't destined to be very long-lived on a mountain stage like d'Huez.  The surprising and yet not-surprising move of the day was from our favourite spicer-of-the-mix, Alberto Contador.  Rounding a corner on the extreme inside of the pack, he surged ahead as the gradient increased of the corner and simply didn't look back.  Andy Schleck was right behind him as always, Cadel Evans fought his way to their wheel, and Thomas Voeckler did that thing he does these days where he supercedes his actual abilities and just does what needs doing to protect the yellow jersey.  Unfortunately for Andy, brother Frank couldn't follow the move and waited behind with the rest of Leopard Trek in the peloton.

This was where things got interesting.  Five kilometres from the top of the first climb, the Col du Telegraphe, Contador went again, and while Andy followed, this time both Cadel and Voeckler floundered.  So maybe it wasn't unexpected when Cadel first stopped to check his bike and then, clearly unhappy with it, waited for the team car to change it for a new one.  This was a definite turning-point in this year's Tour.  Cadel had lost enough time on the leaders to be counting it in minutes, not seconds, and there were only three days left, two if you discount the ceremonial ride into Paris.  Could he do it?

While Voeckler sat out in no-man's land, trying to catch up to the two leaders but never quite strong enough, Cadel dropped back to the peloton, being lead by Ivan Basso's Liquigas team, for a bit of support from his own team.  Right out the front, Andy and Alberto were chugging neatly through the forlorn remnants of the breakaway that couldn't take the heat of an Alpine climb.   Only Movistar stage winner Rui da Costa and AG2R climber Christophe Riblon kept up with the big boys after they'd been caught, and the four continued up once more to the heights of the Col du Galibier.

Back at the peloton, BMC had taken over the pace-making from Liquigas, but as we've seen many times this Tour Cadel wanted to ride his own race, and that's what he did.  Sitting at the front end of the peloton, he soon rode them off his wheel and began encroaching on Voeckler, who decided to sit up and wait for the septet of Cadel, Ivan Basso, Samuel Sanchez, Frank Schleck, and three of Voeckler's own Europcar teammates.

And this is where is starts getting messy.  Sanchez jumps off the front, Europcar's Anthony Charteau and Pierre Rolland chase, Voeckler starts to tire, Charteau drops back to Voeckler, Rolland carries on.  Crossing the top of the Galibier, it's Schleck followed by his friends, then Sanchez, Cadel followed a few seconds later by his group, assorted others chasing, Voeckler with two teammates and then the peloton itself.  On the descent, Sanchez catches the leading four, Cadel's group consolidates itself and then effectively chases down the leaders, catching them and forming one big lead group with 25 kilometres to go.

White jersey hopeful Rolland went off the front first, along with Canadian Ryder Hesjedal, and the two had a 47-second gap open at the foot of the Alpe.  In the meantime, Voeckler's teammates had paced him back to the main group to try and stay competitive in the GC.  Only 15 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck, Voeckler's yellow jersey was on shaky ground.  Behind Rolland and Hesjedal, a big push from one of Leopard Trek's domestiques saw riders start tumbling off the back again, including Voeckler and the current white jersey wearer, Estonian Rein Taaramae.  Then Contador attacked at 12.5 kilometres out, catching up to Rolland and Hesjedal before Andy and Cadel could catch him.  Soon after catching the pair, Contador went on ahead, with Rolland chasing his wheel.

At the 10.5-kilometre mark, a group containing Sammy Sanchez and Frank Schleck made it up to Cadel and Andy's group - yes, they're all over the mountain again.  The Schlecks tried to make Cadel's life difficult, but he took everything they threw at him easily.  When Peter Velits (HTC-Highroad) went off the front, Sanchez chased him, passed him and caught up to Rolland, who, despite the Spaniard's urgings, refused to do any leading.  Rolland sat comfortably on the back of Sanchez's wheel until they caught Alberto, and then promptly took off, leaving the two exhausted Spaniards in the dust to come in second and third, while the young French took his first TdF stage win and the white jersey.

So after all that kerfuffle, the changing hands of the white jersey and the unexpected stage winner who wears it, Cadel is now only 57 seconds down on new race leader Andy Schleck going into tomorrow's time trial, and a laughable four seconds down on second-placed Frank.  While Andy will savour his yellow over the next 24 hours, the question remains as to whether Andy can do a brilliant time trial to save that yellow jersey, or whether in 24 hours, that yellow will be Cadel's.

Stage 18 - Pinerolo => Galibier Serre-Chevalier

Oh.  My gosh.  The Col du Galibier.  FINALLY.  Mountains high enough to get some excitement going.  I will confess, though, that one thing does annoy me about the mountain stages - either you have a breakaway that breaks up and leaves scattered riders all over the course until you have no idea who is where anymore, or else everyone goes quietly off the back of the peloton, never to be seen or heard from again.

But moping aside, mountains!  There was, of course, the usual intermediate sprint with all the associated green jersey action, but all the work of HTC-Highroad to get Mark Cavendish up there in front of JJ Rojas was somewhat wasted, given the breakaway made their break only one kilometre from the sprint point, sweeping through with the top 13 places.  Such big names as AG2R-La Mondiale's Nicolas Roche and everyone's favourite battler, Johnny Hoogerland of Vacansoleil.

But what baffled everyone was the inclusion of Leopard Trek riders Joost Posthuma and Maxime Monfort and BMC's Brent Bookwalter in the breakaway.  As the two teams with GC riders most likely to win the Tour, road race tactics dictate they avoid joining breakaways and try to reel in any that do form.  As we were to discover, Leopard Trek was simply enacting their grand plan.  Maybe BMC had conceived the same plan and missed their opportunity too enact it, or maybe they were simply marking Leopard's move.  It's hard to say.

The number of riders in the breakaway went out to 15 just before the Col Agnel, when Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Mickael Delage (FDJ) and Egor Silin (Katusha) caught up to them.  At the beginning of the first hors-categorie climb the now-16 strong breakaway had almost a nine-minute lead over the main peloton.

And then began the fun of the mountain stages.  As the hills kick in, the climbers check in and the not-so-climbers check out, which left the lead group at 11.  Katusha's Maxim Iglinsky was taking the lead, cresting the Col Agnel first with Johnny Hoogerland right behind.  The group moved straight onto the Col d'Izoard, only six making it to the top in the lead, Leopard Trek's pace-making making it difficult to keep away.

The reason soon became apparent, in one of the most gutsy and unorthodox moves in modern cycling.  60 kilometres from the finish of a mountain stage, Andy Schleck went off the front off the group of favourite riders and began to make his way up the Col d'Izoard alone.  No one was sure what the hell he was doing.  No one was sure he could actually do whatever he was doing.  But he is Andy Schleck, one of the most capable riders in the peloton.  He blazed right past the remnants of the breakaway group as he blazoned on up the Col.

And this was where Leopard Trek's unusual tactics began to show.  As the group of the top contenders behind him finally began to up the ante, maybe not believing he could really stay off the front until the end, the two Leopard riders up from front, Joost and Maxime, waited for Andy to catch up with each of them in turn, and then paced him as far as they could go.  But there was still Iglinsky way out in front.

With the help of teammate Maxime and the three other riders around them, Andy caught Iglinsky with 30 kilomeres left to go, by which point he was far enough ahead of Thomas Voeckler to be wearing the 'virtual' yellow jersey.  With 15 kilometres to go, Max Monfort had finally run out of steam and left Andy to go it almost alone, keeping Iglinsky and Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) for company.

Meanwhile, Contador had decided that enough was enough and started chasing down Andy Schleck.  The three-time Tour de France champion clearly felt he had already lost too much time on his two-time runner-up and was doing something about it, but pretty soon the pace-making all fell to Cadel Evans.  After a couple of abortive breakaway attempts, the also-two-time runner-up clearly decided to ride his own race and simply paced himself up the hill, coincidentally with the yellow jersey group in tow.  As they hauled themselves up the final climb of the Col du Galibier, almost four minutes separated Andy from the groupe maillot jaune.

Finally within the 10-kilometre mark, Andy clearly saw fit to shed his baggage and raced away up the mountain.  Behind him the gap was slowly closing, as Cadel literally dragged the world's top riders up the world's most famous biking mountain.  Though clearly not finding it easy, Andy stuck to his guns long enough to get them over the finishing line in first place, while Contador couldn't stick to his further downhill and fell off the back of Cadel's group, kissing another yellow goodbye.  Andy's brother Frank found his legs and was able to sprint off the front of Cadel's group in the last few kilometres to take second behind his younger sibling.

In a miraculous twist, Voeckler was able to stick to Cadel's wheel, who brought him in 15 seconds ahead of Andy and thus kept his yellow jersey for yet another astonishing day.  So with Contador is clearly out of the question, the question itself reads thus: Andy or Cadel?  Cadel, or Andy?  And here at Maillot Jaune, I've already picked my side.  It's Cadel, all the way.

Stage 17 - Gap => Pinerolo, Italy

It's called the Tour de France, and it tours France, but that doesn't mean that it tours all of France, or only France. The same as last year's prologue was in Holland, this year's Tour took a small detour - into Italy. The way out of Italy will include one of the most anticipated moments of this year's Tour - the Col du Galibier. But riding into Pinerolo will be only marginally less exciting than riding out of it.

It took a fair bit of work to get the day's breakaway going, always too big to safely get away, but 14 riders finally went off the front, including FDJ leader Sandy Casar, Sky sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen and Quicksteps's French national champion Sylvain Chavanel. Building up their lead as they climbed, they were soon individually pursued by AG2R's Nicolas Roche, Tour stalwart Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Quick Step climber Kevin de Weert, who never came close to joining them.

Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Euskadi) managed to break off the front and build up a 43-second lead on the descent, but was picked up again by the breakaway as they again began descending. Sylvain Chavanel then had his shot at solo glory 4.5 kilometres from the end of the final climb, but young Norwegian 'sprinter' Eddy Boasson Hagen, who is proving himself to be much more of an all-around GC guy this Tour, simply wasn't having any of it. Shutting Chavanel down promptly, he just kept right on going and soon found himself alone. The 24-year-old from Lillehammer paced himself into Pinerolo to eventually take a hard-won stage victory, which had me very happy after yesterday's heart-breaking defeat on the road to Gap. The Tour first-timer now has two TdF stage wins under his belt and he is already promising to be absolutely deadly in a few years' time.

In the meantime, back in peloton-land the kids were having fun. Alberto Contador (Saxobank-Sungard), on the back foot after his huge time losses from the first week, started playing some games on the way up the Col de Pramartino, and when he threw himself into the descent only Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) felt like joining him. Cadel Evans, as he later revealed, was trapped behind Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek), a notorious not-so-great descender, when Contador made his move and as such couldn't follow.

The descent was a tricky, technical one, and none would know this better than Saur-Sojasun's Jonathan Hivert. Taking every possible risk as he raced down the mountain in pursuit of Edvald Boasson Hagen, the Frenchman missed a corner and went flying off into the woods alongside the road. He was clearly up and riding shortly after because he did the same thing on another corner and rode neatly into someone's backyard through the fortunately open gate! He wasn't alone. A few minutes later the yellow of Thomas Voeckler appeared next to the parked car in the same backyard, although this time there was a spectator, possibly the homeowner himself, lending a hand to get the maillot jaune back on the road.

With Alberto and Samuel ahead of them and Voeckler losing time on his detour, the group of Cadel and the Schleck brothers, along with the other top names of the Tour, kept pounding their way down the other side of the mountain, trying not to lose too much time to the defending champion. The effort, led by Cadel, didn't seem to be going too well, as Contador and Sanchez were approaching Pinerolo without the other riders in sight. The Spanish pair, working together against the Luxembourg brothers and Aussie battler, were rounding the final corners to the finish line in the middle of town. Then just at the heart-breaking moment when the pair rounded the corner into the finishing straight and your two favourites were going to lose some time, the camera angle shifted to show the two racing forwards - with the other group rounding the corner behind them. Somehow Cadel had dragged everyone up to catch the Olympic and Tour de France champions shortly before they hit the finishing line. Cadel and Andy retained the same times compared to Contador, who must have been shattered that his near-successful breakaway was so neatly destroyed so near the end.

Stage 16 - Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux => Gap

So I guess medium mountain stages are better than flat stages, but they're still not nearly as fun or exciting as the high mountains.  Well, not unless top-level-mountain-climbing-GC-contenders like Alberto Contador decide that an otherwise unremarkable stage is the perfect time to attack and try and gain time on the other GC contenders - and decide the outcome of the Tour de France in the process.  Yes, as of today I'm staking my reputation, such as it is, and calling it.  But I won't spoil the surprise yet.

Today's breakaway took quite a while to form, but the composition will surprise few.  Several are familiar names from other breakaways: Thor Hushovd, of Garmin-Cervelo; Jeremy Roy, FDJ; Marco Marcato, from Vacansoleil; and other familiar names include Norwegian sprinter Eddie Boasson Hagen; and strong GC rider Tony Martin, of HTC-Highroad.  Once released the riders flew ahead and gained huge amounts of time on the peloton, until they'd built up a lead of six minutes with 45 kilometres to go and the peloton stopped chasing after it realised they wouldn't be caught before the intermediate sprint point.  First Katusha's Mikhail Ignatyev, followed by Quickstep's Dries Devenyns, tried to break from the group, but the breakaway soon caught their wheel and forced the 10 to stick together.

Canada's Ryder Hesjedal then took up the breakaway's pace-making, and finding the others unable to keep up, took off on his own.  Sky's young sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen, who is showing himself to be reasonably adept at scaling mountains as well, soon decided to take up the chase, and was followed by Hesjedal's teammate, world champion Thor Hushovd, who marked Boasson Hagen's every move but refused to help in the chase of his co-equipier.  Behind them the breakaway splintered, the remaining riders destined to drift across the finish line over a period of a few minutes.

With all eyes on the breakaway and the fierce competition between Hesjedal, Boasson Hagen and Hushovd for stage supremacy, of course it was in the peloton where the action was taking place.  Feeling the gradient suddenly kick up on the bottom of the Col de Manse as the peloton rounded a bend, Alberto Contador suddenly jumped to the front of the peloton and attacked, and all of a sudden the race was on.  The Schleck brothers of Team Leopard Trek, Cadel Evans (BMC) and yellow jersey of Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) all followed, trailed by Olympic champion, Euskaltel-Euskadi's Sammy Sanchez.  Contador went again, and this time Andy Schleck struggled to keep up, not faring so well on the medium slope.  Contador attacked a third time, and this time he was gone, and only after a few seconds could Cadel and Samuel Sanchez catch up, the Schlecks and Voeckler left behind.  Sanchez quickly assumed the lead from Contador to try and put some distance between the three and their chasers, who were separated from the main peloton.

As the trio raced uphill, another trio was racing down.  Nine kilometres from the end Boasson Hagen, usually described as a "sprinter", had caught sole Canadian pro-cyclist Hesjedal, Hushovd still sitting comfortably in his younger countryman's wake.  Now both Garmin riders sat back, letting Boasson Hagen do the pace-making, the black-clad rider knowing all the time that the teammates on his back wheel were co-ordinating their attack against him.  In truth it was very simple and not at all unexpected.  With a couple of kilometres to go Hesjedal took up the pace-making again, Hushovd at the back, Boasson Hagen sitting in between checking constantly on the bigger sprinter behind to see when he would make his move.  The three moved warily down to the flamme rouge of one kilometre to go, and then they went.  Hesjedal increased the tempo to open up the sprint, and when Boasson Hagen wasn't expecting it Hushovd simply jumped out from behind and went ahead.  The younger Norwegian sprinter was no match for the older Norwegian sprinter, and Hushovd took a second stage victory from his compatriot.

Meanwhile the fight was still very much alive behind them, and as Contador, Evans and Sanchez crested the climb they had around a minute over the other GC riders pursuing them.  But the gap increased on the descent, for Cadel Evans, clearly a better descender than either of the Spaniards, rode downhill at his own pace, and at one point had nearly 30 seconds over his two followers.  The pair managed to bring this down once they reached the flat section leading to the finish at Gap, finishing three seconds behind Evans and around 20 seconds ahead of the pursuers behind, who included Thomas Voeckler and Frank Schleck but not his brother, Andy.

So to finish my earlier comments, I'm now calling the yellow jersey of the 2011 Tour de France for Cadel Evans.  Of the serious contenders for the maillot jaune who are left in the race, Cadel is the best time-trialler and will finish with at least 30 seconds over the nearest of them.  He can keep pace with Andy and Alberto in the high mountains, those being the two known for their quick accelerations on steep ascents, and is quite comfortable in medium mountains, something which Andy Schleck (and possibly Frank) is definitely not.  He is in brilliant form this year, looking much better than any of the other riders, and  lastly his team this year is excellent. BMC's Tour de France team was chosen with direct input from Cadel Evans and with supporting Cadel to yellow in mind, and all of the team members have been visible doing exactly that, while Contador's Saxobank-Sungard side made mistakes from the word 'go' (beginning with the crash in the first stage where the team should have moved Contador up the front out of trouble like the other teams had done).  Andy and Frank's team of Leopard Trek are all brilliant, but maybe their issue lies therein.  Leopard truly is a 'team of champions', each one renowned and celebrated with several victories to their name, whereas by contrast BMC appears to be the proverbial 'champion team' - eight good, solid, unremarkable riders all focussed on the single goal of helping Cadel Evans win the Tour.  With all this in his favour, I fail to see now how he can lose.

Stage 15 - Limoux => Montpellier

My least favourite stage - a flat one.  Give me a good old mountain climb anyday, or a nice gripping time trial so I can count the seconds.  But a flat stage?  Nothing - on a good day nothing - happens until the very end, and then only for a few seconds!  Oh, to be in the Alps already!

But the flat stages are still important, even for the GC riders.  On a stage like today's, the challenge for the GC riders is to stay up the front and stay safe, a task that Cadel Evans says is enormously difficult when you don't have a team to help you as he does now.  With the sprinters jostling for position and the other GC riders trying to stay near the front, simply staying on your bike all stage can be the hardest thing you do.

Would it surprise anyone if I said there was a breakaway?  Very early on one of FDJ's favourite breakaway riders, Mickael Delage, bolted for it, followed by four others including the Tour's youngest rider, Anthony Delaplace.  The peloton were unconcerned, happy to let the other riders have a play while they concentrated on staying out of trouble for yet another stage.

They couldn't be too complacent, though, and after a while two of Cav's teammates came up to do the pace-making and hold the escapees at an acheivable distance of three minutes.  This also placed them in a good position to help Cav take top points available at the intermediate sprint point afterthe breakaway of five had gone through with Delage taking maximum points.  Philippe Gilbert and Jose Joaquin Rojas also followed Cav across the line, keeping themselves right up with the Manxman in the green jersery competition.  After this HTC continued to keep up the pace, with Leopard Trek and BMC rendering assistance in the interests of their GC riders as well.

The breakaway was holding its own until Katusha's Mikhail Ignatiev shot off the front at 22 kilometres to go to try and make it on his own.  Niki Terpstra of Quickstep decided to join him and indeed, soon left Ignatiev for dead and went on his own at 6.5 kilometres to go, but if there's anything the Tour has taught us this year, it's that a breakaway that fights within itself and doesn't work together has no hope of staying a breakaway until the stage's end.  Predictably enough the peloton caught Ignatiev and the three others and brought Terpstra back to within 12 seconds by the five kilometre mark.

Then with both Terpstra and the finish line in sight, Gilbert decided it was a nice day for a ride and brought Terpstra back into the fold as he went for the victory, followed by Anthony Roux (FDJ) and Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil).  But a determined Team HTC with a hot-shot Cavendish just raring for a race had already called dibs on this stage, and Gilbert and entourage were quickly outpaced as the Highroad train steamed into the town of Montpellier and very neatly delivered their green man to the finish line, well clear of Garmin-Cervelo's Tyler Farrar and Lampre sprinter Alessandro Petacchi.  Another victory on a platter for Manx missile Mark Cavendish.

Stage 14 - Saint-Gaudens => Plateau de Beille

In every Tour de France which has had a stage finish on the Plateau de Beille, the winner of the stage has gone on to win the Tour.  I highly doubt that this will ring true this year - the stage winner is not a big name; in fact, this is their first win in their entire professional career of seven years.  But like all sport cycling is constantly improving, and I suspect that not only is the quality of riders by this 2011 Tour higher than the last time the Tour rode to Plateau de Beille, but that the high-quality riders are closer together in ability than they have been previously.  In short, there are more equally-brilliant riders than every other time the winner of Plateau de Beille has won the Tour de France.

Today's breakaway was a surprising one - 24 riders, including three from the GC teams of yellow jersey hopefuls Cadel Evans (BMC) and Frank and Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek).  A breakaway of this size was never going to succeed, so some of the riders decided to go it alone.  Julien El Fares of Cofidis and the team leader of FDJ, Sandy Casar, leapt ahead of the pack and were soon joined by Garmin-Cervelo's David Millar.  As the reached the first of the climbs Millar was unable to keep up, but several others from the original breakaway of 24 came forward to join Casar and El Fares to make a total of 11 riders, including Jens Voigt and Linus Gerdemann, the teammates of the Schleck brothers.

Europcar, protecting the yellow jersey of Thomas Voeckler, began setting the pace, before Leopard Trek took over and began upping the ante, putting the pressure on the peloton as they began traversing the second and first category climbs mi-parcours.  Unfortunately Stuey O'Grady may have been warning the riders behind him of the upcoming bends of the descents, but clearly not all got the message, as Rabobank's Laurens Ten Dam went off the bitumen and performed what can only be described as a faceplant over the handlebars into a ditch.  Patched up, he continued chasing, but up in the breakaway Jens Voigt wasn't having any more luck.  Having chosen a nice place to crash, he promptly went off the road into a large pile of soft ferns, and quickly re-emerged, bike held over his head.  The new bike did him no good either, for his wheel slipped on the sun-warmed tar of the road and he hit the deck again.  The peloton soon reeled him in and he joined the "Leopard Trek Express", chuffing Andy and Frank right on up the climbs - the rest of the peloton were participation optional!

Once they hit the final climb, the hors-categorie montee up to the Plateau de Beille, the result was inevitable.  Leopard Trek kept going as long as they had breath and rider, stamping out a pace designed to shred the peloton to pieces.  As usual they did a good job, only a few riders still able to follow the leaders by the time the Leopard domestiques could do no more.  The leaders themselves did the rest of the work, setting a pace only they could handle as they swept past broken remnants of breakaway and attacks long forgotten and now futile.

Though many were saying it was Frank who looked strongest on the climb up to Luz-Ardiden two days ago, today it was Andy Schleck who parried and feinted like a master swordsman, attacking several times on the way up the plateau.  By now the group only held 10 - Andy and his brother; Cadel Evans; Alberto Contador, Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale); Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto); Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi); Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale); and yellow jersey-wearer Thomas Voeckler and teammate Pierre Rolland.  Lampre's Damiano Cunego clung to the back for a while, but as the group reached the higher climes Cunego had long since disappeared.  Despite Andy's attacks, he achieved no time advantage, for there was always someone waiting to jump on his back wheel, and the rest of the group followed suit.  Though he never actively chased as did Voeckler or Evans, Contador remained in the group, following every attack as closely as all the rest.  Basso seemed to be riding at his own tempo, sometimes falling off the back of the group and at other times leaping to the front to lead it, unable to keep up with the accelerations and decelerations of the others.

The four main rivals were so busy concentrating on each other they didn't notice at first when Jelle Vanendert made his move and got clear, and little did they care, either.  Not high enough on the GC table to be a threat, Evans, Contador and the Schlecks were conserving their energy to battle each either, so neither did the follow when Sammy Sanchez decided now was his time.  Unable to catch the Belgian, the stage played out as a mirror image of Luz-Ardiden, when Sanchez won, Vanendert took second and the main riders shadowed each other to the finish.  This time, however, the Belgian unknown was riding to his first ever victory on the pro circuit, shadowed by the world champion.  As the "peloton" of the top GC riders came in, Andy clearly felt a bit antsy and sprinted for the finish, leaving the others to come in a few seconds behind, not enough to change the overall standings.

The remarkable rider of the day had to go to Thomas Voeckler, who, even though he eventually lost teammate Pierre Rolland who had paced him up Luz-Ardiden and is likely a better climber, still managed to chase the big names up to the top and challenge them for the lead.  If Andy, Cadel & Friends don't manage to dislodge him when they reach the Alps, Tommy Voeckler could suddenly be dangerously close to winning the French a Tour de France.

Stage 13 - Pau => Lourdes

It was a gloriously triumphant stage and a devastatingly disappointing stage, depending on which way you look at it.  One man lifted himself above his limits to a well-deserved stage win, but another lost out at the last-minute on his hard-won stage victory after stretching his limits as well.  The Tour de France is always exciting, but it's never quite so heart-breaking and heart-rending as this.

Sadly, but not unsuprisingly, today's stage also began with those who couldn't.   Quickstep sprinter Gert Steegmans never made it to the starting line, and three riders didn't get much past it - Vladimir Isaichev (Katusha), Lars Boom of Rabobank, and Team Radioshack's last hope in German Andreas Kloden all felt they couldn't go on.  The nasty crashes of the first week are beginning to take their deadly toll on Tour de France hopes.  Russian sprinter Denis Galimzyanov was also absent, having finished outside the elimination time on Luz-Ardiden yesterday.

When it came to the day's breakaway it took the riders a while to figure themselves out.  In the end FDJ's Jeremy Roy, clearly tired of all the fluffing around, decided that if no-one else was going to break away, he would.  Several of the sprinters, realising there was now an echappee, opted to join in, including world champion Thor Hushovd and Italian Lampre sprinter Alessandro Petacchi.  But this was Roy's breakaway, and the rules were clear: you keep up with my speed, and don't hold me back, or you can go back to the peloton.  Most of the other nine riders were happy to abide by his rules, and some even took turns at the pace-making, such as Sky's young sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen, who is beginning to show some skill in climbing.  Boasson Hagen also led the breakaway through the intermediate sprint, no-one bothering to race for maximum points.  The peloton did, though, with Movistar's JJ Rojas and a teammate outmanouvering a very annoyed Cavendish for 10th place.

It was Thor Hushovd who eventually decided that he needed to increase the speed.  The Norweigan accelerated out from the back of the group of 10, rocketing away up the hill.  At first no-one reacted, but after a minute Roy decided that no-one was breaking away from his breakaway without his permission.  He began chasing the powerful sprinter down and soon passed him, being a better climber.  Cofidis' eccentric climber David Moncoutie also decided to farewell his fellow escapees and set off after Hushovd, for a while with the Tour's other Norweigan Eddy Boasson Hagen in tow.  Moncoutie soon caught up to Hushovd on his own, and similarly dropped him later on.

Roy managed to acheive the aim of his breakaway - he crossed the Col d'Aubisque in the lead and took the 20 points for first over the hors-categorie climb, giving him enough points in the King of the Mountains classification to take the polka-dot jersey.  But with an eight-minute lead over the peloton and more than a minute ahead of his nearest pursuers, Roy expanded his ambitions - go for the stage win.

And go he did.  Roy shot off like a cat with its tail on fire, as did his pursuers, while the peloton was merely out for a Sunday ride, seemingly oblivious to all other considerations.  By the time the peloton crossed over the non-categorised Col du Solour, the riders ahead had organised themselves into distinct groups - first there was Roy, doing his own little time-trial in the lead; then Moncoutie and Hushovd, who had caught the Frenchman on the descent of Solour and now had him in his slipstream; and then the trio of Edvald Boasson Hagen, Jerome Pineau (Quickstep) and Lars Bak of HTC-Highroad sitting in positions four through six on the road.

But now it was chase time, Leopard Trek sending some riders to the front of the peloton to up the pace as Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) jumped off the front with Rabobank's Bauke Mollema on his tail.  While unconcerned by riders like Hushovd, Roy and Pineau, Gilbert is reasonably high in the overall classification and the leaders were a bit nervous about him getting too far ahead.  He finished the stage just under a minute head of the peloton, vaulting him into ninth place in the general classification.

It was chase time for the breakaway too.  The massive form of Thor Hushovd, with red-clad Moncoutie in his wake, was now bearing down on raceaway Roy, one and a half minutes ahead.  Though the day was classified as a 'mountain' stage because of the HC climb in the middle, the road to the finish was flat, and Roy had to stay ahead if he wanted to win, as neither Frenchman could beat the Norweigan in a sprint finish.  As the peloton continued its leisurely pace southwards Hushovd continued to eat away at Roy's lead, until by the 10 kilometres-to-go banner Roy was only 30 seconds ahead.

But 'Jeje' Roy stayed tantalisingly out of reach, stubbornly staying 15 seconds ahead of Hushovd for the next seven-and-a-half kilometres, until Hushovd decided it was time to shut him down once and for all to take the stage.  Despite looking like he was flagging, Hushovd suddenly jumped forward, leaving behind Moncoutie (who refused to help with the pace-making so as not to be accused of preventing a French victory) and very quickly came up behind Roy, who didn't even have the energy to jump in Hushovd's slipstream and grab second place.  A demoralised Roy rolled over the line 26 seconds behind the leader.

Though earning himself both the polka-dot jersey of the King of the Mountains and the red number of the most combative or "spirited" rider, Roy was extremely disheartened to lose the stage so close to victory.  "They [my wife and parents] were disappointed for me, they cried.  They believed it too," he said in an article he wrote for French sports paper 'L'Equipe'.  This is the heart-rending part - as a sprinter Hushovd was thrilled to take a 'miracle' stage win over the high mountains, but at the cost of "not a champion" man who had worked all day for the same prize.  How do you choose who should win?

Nothing to report on the big names; the only major change in the GC is Gilbert's jump to ninth.  Tomorrow on the road to Plateau du Beille is when the girls and boys may - or may not - come out to play.  Whether Contador decides to attack and make up time or whether everyone waits til the Alps to go for gold (en jerseys) remains to be seen.

And for the record, I chose Jeremy.

Stage 12 - Cugnaux => Luz-Ardiden

There is a saying amongst the riders when they reach the Pyrenees - "Le Tour commence aujourd'hui" ("The Tour starts today"), and they would be right.  This is the reason I have been waiting so eagerly for the mountains in the Tour de France - it's where you get to separate the boys from the men, find out who is in good form and who's not, and you can finally tell who's serious about winning the Tour de France.

As expected on such as auspicious day there was a certain amount of chaos from people attacking, falling back, being caught and dropping off, but being the mountains there are only so many riders who can truly handle them, and it wasn't as hard as it sometimes is to keep track of who was where.  The drama (and the television coverage!) started at 80 kilometres from the finish.  As usual there was a breakaway out the front - this time it was Geraint Thomas from Team Sky leading it, Laurent Mangel from Saur-Sojasun, Blel Kadri of AG2R and Ruben Perez of Euskaltel-Euskadi, as well as Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Movistar) and Jeremy Roy (FDJ) for the umpteenth time, all seven or eight minutes ahead of the peloton.

Meanwhile the sprinters were gathering themselves up for the last goodbye - the final green jersey points before the mountains where they would be relegated to the autobus, the group of non-mountain-loving sprinters just trying to get over the finish before the elimination time.  Though the highest points had already been taken the breakaway, the sprinters still took their chances, and it was really no surprise to anyone that it was Mark Cavendish who took the maximum remaining points, followed by teammates Gossie and Renshaw.  The two picked up more points to increase the gap between Cav and his nearest rivals for the green jersey, Philippe Gilbert and Jose Joaquin Rojas, who followed the HTC boys across the line.  After that it was the back of the pack and the autobus for these guys.

It was on the first climb of the day, the Category 1 Hourquette d'Ancizan, that the first move came.  King of the Mountains Johnny Hoogerland, soon followed by first Sylvain Chavanel and then Roman Kreuziger, raced on ahead in the hopes of winning enough extra polka-dot jersey points to keep his hold on the KOM jersey.  While Hoogerland soon reappeared in the peloton's radar, and even Chavanel eventually came home thanks to the relentless riding of the main bunch, Kreuziger went right off and was at one point within 30 seconds of the leading riders, though he never bridged the gap and fell off the back like all the rest as the climbs reached their steepest.

Out the front the lead group was collasping, as Geraint Thomas decided he was better off alone and made it happen.  Thomas had been wearing the white jersey of the best young rider until the crash of team leader Brad Wiggins, where the team stopped to see if the injured Brit could continue and Thomas lost several minutes on his rivals.  Jeremy Roy soon decided that he didn't like left behind and dragged himself up to form the leading pair, leading the race until part-way up Luz-Ardiden, the final hors-categorie (outside classification) climb of the day.

The peloton were having fun too.  Geraint Thomas had earlier had problems on one of the corners - he braked, caused his back wheel to lock and went skidding off the side of the road on a downhill.  Thankfully dodging between the parked cars and falling off his bike before the pair took the short cut down the mountain, he remounted and continued the descent, only to go skidding off the road again at the next corner!  Swapping bikes (there was mud on his wheels from the first incident that caused the second one), Thomas continued the cautious descent, while team staff advised their riders to beware Thomas' issues.  But at that self-same corner Thomas Voeckler also locked his back wheel and crashed gently into one of the parked cars, before turning his bike and heading downhill again.  Other riders weren't so lucky, hitting the deck in the middle of the corner and forcing the peloton around them. No injuries more serious than scrapes and bruises, though.

The peloton continued up the first hors-categorie climb of the Col de Tourmalet, Leopard Trek setting a grueling pace, while two or three different breakaway groups formed and faded away, the only one that never came back being that of Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Omega Pharma-Lotto unknown Jelle Vanendert.  The peloton slowly grew smaller up the climb, riders like Jens Voigt and Stuey O'Grady sacrificing themselves completely under orders from the Schleck brothers.  By the time they were one-third of the way up Luz-Ardiden it had paid off.  While Sanchez and Vanendert were still a minute or so ahead, the only other riders left were the Schlecks, Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador, Damiano Cunego, leader of Team Lampre, Ivan Basso and teammate Sylvester Smyzd, who was likewise ordered to pick up the pace, and yellow jersey-wearer Thomas Voeckler and teammate Pierre Rolland (Europcar).  The octet paced each other up, watching for the moves, until Andy and Frank pulled the old one-two on the rest, Andy feinting before Frank pulled away and made a move.  The second time Frank went none followed, so the Luxembourg national champion chased down the two leaders and finished just behind Jelle Vanendert, who didn't have the legs to beat Sanchez to the stage win.  Meanwhile the other six, Sylvester Smyzd now having been dropped, continued on up to the high finish, and everyone was surprised to see Andy, Cadel and Basso round the corner without Contador, who eventually finish eight seconds behind.

The general classification is now in disarray, Thomas Voeckler with less of a gap after finishing 30 seconds behind Frank Schleck, who has now leapfrogged Cadel into second place thanks to his breakaway attempt.  Contador, while now ahead of almost everyone else in the GC, is even further behind the riders who really matter - Frank, Andy, Cadel, and even Ivan and Damiano.  Cavendish retains the green jersey, as does Voeckler his yellow, while Sanchez stole the King of the Mountains jersey at the top of Luz-Ardiden, and the white jersey is now being sported by young FDJ rider Arnold Jeannesson, who managed to follow the big names right up the mountain to finish in 13th place.  Oddly enough, Jeannesson was only trying to improve himself in the general classification, and regarded the maillot blanc as a sort of extra benefit on the side!

Stage 11 - Blaye-Les-Mines => Lavaur

Another flat stage, one for the sprinters with no anticipated action from the big guns (as Paul Sherwen likes to call them).  For the kind of stage, 'twas a fairly stock-standard beginning, middle and end, but it's always nice to see just how they play out.  Sometimes, 'how' is every bit as important as 'what'.

When I said 'standard beginning', I meant a breakaway.  And as usual for the breakaways, there was an FDJ rider in it.  It must have been Jeremy Roy's day off, because it was Mickael Delage, seemingly Roy's 'back-up guy', up the front, along with riders from the small French teams (Saur-Sojasun and Cofidis) and the orange teams (Euskaltel-Euskadi and Rabobank), as well as blue-and-yellow Astana.  But the breakaway is never popular, and while Europcar began the work to keep their lead at bay and protect Voeckler's yellow, HTC came up and lent a hand, clearly working for their Manxman Mark Cavendish.

The riders all had a little fun at the intermediate sprint point, the top points taken out by the six-man breakaway, but still leaving a max nine points for Cav to help him keep the lead over his rivals.  They had a little more fun trying to navigate the category four climb of the Cote de Puylaure, GC teams trying to protect their leaders and green jersey teams trying to protect their sprinters on the wet roads of southern France.

HTC continued to work in the increasingly heavy rain, slowing reeling in the peloton in the massive amounts of 'wet' pouring from the sky.  Despite the attack of Lars Boom at the peloton approached the breakaway the peloton was still too strong, and by four kilometres to go had caught the last of the riders.  Now it was all down to the sprinters.

I still fail to understand why anyone wants to go up against the HTC lead-out train.  When nine guys line up in a row with the world's fastest man, Mark Cavendish, at the tail and the stage win in their sights, well, it's like a freight train bearing down on you.  It's a-coming, it's gonna go right over the o-ye, and then it's gonna keep on going til it gets where it's going.  With his team behind him (or in front of him, rather) Cav can literally do anything, and he did it yet again, sprinting across the line into Lavaur stalked by Andre Greipel, who had pipped Cav on the line the previous day and likely inspired him to victory.

On the GC front, naught to report but that naught has changed.  On a flat stage like this, Cadel, Andy and the Numero Unos only had to stay safe and on the bike, and crossing the line in a group meant that the times haven't changed.  The only difference is that we're down one more rider - AG2R La Mondiale's John Gadret failed to start, still tired from his effort in the Giro d'Italia, undoubtedly a blow for "Agr-2-R" (as I so unsophisicatedly call them).  On to tomorrow!

Stage 10 - Aurillac => Carmaux

Finally, a 'good' stage on the Tour de France - because no-one crashed out!  It's a little bit sad that this should be dubbed a 'good' stage and not a 'normal' stage on the Tour.  While there was a crash, it was comparatively small, and everyone got up and rode away.  One of the 'uninjured' teams in yesterday's round-up is also off that list now - Leopard Trek had their first piece of bad luck when several of their riders when down in a crash 11 kilometres from the start of the stage, but apart from a few scrapes and bruises all are well.

But that crash was the incentive for the breakaway, using the moment of confusion to leap off the front of the peloton.  Saur-Sojasun's Anthony Delaplace was up there again, along with Remy Di Gregorio from Astana, another team that has changed tactics to breakaways after losing their team leader, and four other riders.   Newbie Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) made his prescence felt, taking all the King of the Mountains points to prevent anyone else encroaching upon the lead of his teammate Johnny Hoogerland in that competition.

The peloton raced through the intermediate sprint, Mark Cavendish once again showing his dominance in that discipline, before settling itself into a steady rhythm with HTC-Highroad and Europcar making the pace.  They were later joined by the teams of the sprinters such as Omega and Garmin to try and bring the breakaway back before the sprint finish of the stage.

They reeled in the breakaway with around 30 kilometres to go, Marcato trying to hang on until he'd crossed the final time and claimed the final mountain points. But the peloton was too strong riding uphill, and collected the 27-year-old, who won himself the red number of the most combative rider for his efforts.

It wasn't until around 10 kilometres from the finish that anyone made their move.  The golden boy of this year's Tour, Belgian Philippe Gilbert, raced off the front of the peloton, along with the Tour leader Thomas Voeckler, Cofidis' Tony Gallopin, Quickstep's Dries Devenyns and Tony Martin of HTC-Highroad, who was 6th in the GC.  This caused a bit of panic for the peloton, who didn't like the thought of Martin, Voeckler or Gilbert quite so far ahead, even when 'far' constitutes 11 seconds, so there was some frantic pace-making from the teams of the leaders which saw them finally reeled in around five kilometres from the end.

Then the sprinters began to come forward, HTC's lead-out train taking prominence despite being shorter than usual - Matty Goss, Bernhard Eisel and Mark Renshaw were dropped on the climb up the last hill.  This meant that Mark Cavendish went for the sprint from further back than usual.  Appearing from behind the wheel of a Liquigas-Cannondale rider, the Manxman went like crazy as usual, Omega Pharma-Lotto sprinter Andre Greipel on his wheel.  In the last 100 metres Greipel came up beside Cavendish, and finally had his victory over his rival by pipping Cav for the win by a wheel.  Thor Hushovd also made it over the climbs to finish fourth in the stage.

Monday - Rest Day

It may be a rest day, but the show never ends for the riders in the world's greatest bike race.  Unfortunately I can't give you a sneak peek backstage at that show, but today does provide a good opportunity to do a wrap-up of the Tour so far - and add updates on the news that hit the riders while they were off-duty.

By the end of Stage 9, 18 riders were no longer participating in the Tour de France.  Of those 18, 6 have broken collarbones and another 8 have injuries sustained in the crashes.  1 has been timed out.  Countless other riders are also in varying degrees of pain after the numerous crashes in this year's Tour.

Of the 22 teams, so far 3 have lost their main GC contenders (Astana lost Alexandre Vinokourov, Sky lost Bradley Wiggins and Omega Pharma-Lotto lost Jurgen van den Broeck) and two others look to be going the same way (Quickstep lost Tom Boonen and other GC rider Sylvain Chavanel is injured and riding badly; Radioshack have lost Jani Brajkovic and Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer has lost a lot of time from crashes and Andreas Kloden went down in a crash).  There are at most 6 teams who have escaped untouched by crashes or abandons: AG2R La Mondiale, FDJ, Lampre-ISD, Leopard Trek, Liquigas and Saur-Sojasun - touch wood, of course.

There will be at least one more rider who won't start Stage 10 - Alexandre Kolobnev, currently of Team Katusha, has left the Tour after testing positive to a banned substance, the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide.  Kolobnev is now out of the Tour, whether voluntarily or at his team's insistence, and he has requested a test of his B-sample.  If the B-sample also comes back positive, not only will Kolobnev be cast out of the team and fined five times his yearly salary, but he may also face sanctions on an international level.

And lastly, after nine days of hard riding and some rather unexpected results, here is how the general classification looks now:

	Rider		Team	Time	Gap
1.	VOECKLER Thomas		TEAM EUROPCAR	38h 35' 11"
2.	SANCHEZ Luis-Leon		RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM	38h 37' 00"	+ 01' 49"
3.	EVANS Cadel		BMC RACING TEAM	38h 37' 37"	+ 02' 26"
4.	SCHLECK Frank		TEAM LEOPARD-TREK	38h 37' 40"	+ 02' 29"
5.	SCHLECK Andy		TEAM LEOPARD-TREK	38h 37' 48"	+ 02' 37"
6.	MARTIN Tony		HTC - HIGHROAD	38h 37' 49"	+ 02' 38"
7.	VELITS Peter		HTC - HIGHROAD	38h 37' 49"	+ 02' 38"
8.	KLÖDEN Andréas		TEAM RADIOSHACK	38h 37' 54"	+ 02' 43"
9.	GILBERT Philippe		OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO	38h 38' 06"	+ 02' 55"
10.	FUGLSANG Jakob		TEAM LEOPARD-TREK	38h 38' 19"	+ 03' 08"

Stage 9 - Issoire => Saint-Flour

I wrote on Facebook a few days ago that we'd probably have the final standings of the Tour by day 10, and that the winner this year would be the one guy still on his bike by the time we reached Paris. It's beginning to look scarily like it's coming true, and for the most horrible of reasons.

It seems all I write about these days is crashes in the Tour de France, but this year's race has really and truly been defined by these incidents. While crashes are normal - indeed, expected - in any bike race, this year seems to have been particularly bad. With the death of Wouter Weylandt in the Giro and Team Movistar rider Juan Mauricio Soler left in a coma after a crash in the Tour de Suisse, the horrific accidents at the Tour are made all the more scary. Three teams (Sky, Astana and Omega-Pharma Lotto) are now left without their main GC contendors, two other teams (Quickstep and Radioshack) look set to go the same way, and the only team that seems to have been no riders who've hit the asphalt is Team Leopard Trek, of the Schleck brothers.

So today was no different - after the peloton crossed the first of the 7 climbs of the stage, the Category 3 Cote de Massiac, a breakaway finally managed to form, sprinting off the front to build up a lead of around about five minutes. It was almost surprising that the peloton let this six-man breakaway escape, given the strength of the riders in it - Spanish time-trial champion Luis Leon Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), former yellow jersey-wearer Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), former polka dot-jersey wearer Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil), as well as Niki Terpstra (Quickstep), Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky) and Sandy Casar (FDJ).

The six men raced away and began to climb mountains, Voeckler and Hoogerland originally fighting it out for King of the Mountains points as they crossed each climb, until the pair made a controversial and technically illegal agreement that Voeckler would let Hoogerland take maximum KOM points if Hoogerland would help Voeckler towards the yellow jersey and the stage win. The breakaway were so pre-occupied with trying to stay ahead of the peloton that they heard nothing of the destruction behind them.

Coming down the Col du Pas de Peyrol (Le Puy Mary on the south side), Team Astana were descending fast on the outside, so fast that when they hit the corner a rider ahead of them went down and Team Astana were forced off the road into a deep ditch. Teammates soon carried Alexandre Vinokourov out of the ditch and straight into the back of a waiting Tour ambulance, which took him to hospital to be treated for his fractured femur head. Meanwhile, Omega Pharma-Lotto's leader Jurgen van den Broeck was lying on the road looking sorry for himself, and when placed back on his bicycle by team staff, van den Broeck kicked his leg back over the bike and collapsed onto the ground again, in a clear gesture of 'I'm not doing it, guys. Just get me out of here.' It was a good call by van den Broeck, who will spend several days in the Intensive Care Unit with a collapsed lung, three broken ribs and a broken shoulderblade. Teammate Frederik Willems also pulled out with a broken collarbone, as did Garmin-Cervelo's Dave Zabriskie with a broken wrist.

By agreement at the front of the peloton, a truce was called to allow those affected by the crash who could still ride to catch up to the main peloton. 20 kilometres or so later it was back to work as the peloton now had to try and reel in the breakaway, whose lead had ballooned out to five minutes again when the peloton crashed.

But the breakaway was having trouble of its own. A French TV car, swerving into the road to dodge a tree on the shoulder, drove straight into the breakaway and cleaned up two of the riders, causing Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha to kiss the asphalt and sending Vacansoleil's Johnny Hoogerland flying into a barbed wire fence. The remaining three riders in the breakaway, Niki Terpstra long having been dropped, continued riding, now with diminshed capacity to stay off the front. Flecha was soon back on the bike and being bandaged up by the medics as he tried to return to the breakaway, but his injuries won over and he was soon caught by the peloton.

It took a lot longer before anyone could get eyes on Hoogerland, but a sorrier sight never was seen at the Tour de France. Rips, tears, gashes and gouges all over him, blood flowing from inumerable cracks in the hide and with token white bandages all over, Hoogerland was more than happy to take it easy, falling off the back of the peloton but still managing to finish the stage so as to validate his King of the Mountain points and claim his hard-won jersey. Then it was off to hospital for 33 stitches, even as Flecha was taken in for an X-ray, just to be on the safe side - presuming such a thing really exists in this Tour.

While Flecha and Hoogerland tried to be bigger than their injuries, the breakaway was still flying along and managing to keep a solid five minutes clear of the peloton, a gap which was greater than that separating breakaway leader Voeckler from the yellow jersey-wearer Hushovd, making Voeckler the virtual wearer of the sunny garment. Inspired by this idea, Voeckler pushed on, receiving no help from Casar, struggling to keep up, or even Sanchez, who was conserving energy for his own move.

That move came within 500 metres of the finish, after Voeckler, who had hauled the trio up the final climb unassisted, ducked behind his two companions before darting around to try and win the stage. Sanchez saw him coming and went, and, having more in his legs than the man who had done all the day's pace-making, raced on to win three seconds ahead of the exhausted Voeckler, Casar dragging himself across the line three seconds after.

Garmin-Cervelo soon resigned themselves to the fact that Thor had lost the jersey to Thomas Voeckler and surrendered the pace-making, instead taking it easy and conserving energy for later on. But despite the best efforts of BMC and Leopard Trek, trying to keep their GC riders within a good time gap, they couldn't bridge the gap to the breakaway and instead the front section of the peloton finished almost four minutes behind, leaving Cadel Evans 2:26 down on yellow and Frank and Andy Schleck 2:29 and 2:37 down, respectively. Alberto Contador is now 16th in the general classification, 4:07 from donning the maillot jaune, and with injuries to boot. Contador has a lot of work to do if he wants glory again this year.

Stage 8 - Aigurande => Super-Besse Sancy

An exciting day on the Tour!  Not surprising considering the Tour has finally entered its exciting phase: THE MOUNTAINS (cue dramatic music).  Surprisingly, and somehow not surprisingly, today's drama came about because of the breakaway.

For yes, again today we had a breakaway in the Tour de France.  Quel surprise.  This was by far the biggest breakaway of this year's Tour, comprising around 10 riders from a similar number of teams.  Team Sky was represented in their first breakaway for the Tour, being forced to change their tactics after the withdrawal of team leader Brad Wiggins due to injury, while Team Cofidis had two riders out the front.  Leaping off after 8 kilometres, they built up a lead of around seven kilometres at its height.

The most puzzling part of the day's stage that has kept commentators talking was the tactics of Team BMC.  The entire team of Aussie Cadel Evans moved up to the front of the peloton and took up the pace-making for almost the entire stage.  BMC was joined in the later sections by Garmin-Cervelo, making a token effort at defending the yellow jersey worn by their sprinter Thor Hushovd, which most people were sure Hushovd would lose at the end of the stage, possibly to Evans himself.

There was nothing much exciting to report until the mountains, when the peloton with Garmin leading began to close in on the breakaway, and young American rider Tejay van Garderen decided that he could do better on his own.  The HTC rider moved off, and set such a high pace that the rest of the breakaway struggled to follow.  Soon it was only Movistar's Rui da Costa who could keep up, and the two raced away up the small slope towards Super-Besse.

Meanwhile, some of the other riders wanted in on the breakaway action.  Johnny Hoogerland, leader of the polka-dot jersey competition leapt off the front of the peloton with a friend, and began chasing down the two leaders, van Garderen and da Costa, as well as the three riders that the pair had dropped off.  But then Astana's top rider, Alexandre Vinokourov, decided it was his day and made his own move.  While Hoogerland never got far - he bridged the gap to one of the chase groups - Vinokourov was a much tougher competitor.

Soon it was chaos for media and spectators alike, with so many small groups of riders moving up and down between the two leaders and the main peloton that it became extremely difficult to know who was where and with what time gap.  But one theme became very apparent - Vinokourov was closing in.  Portuguese da Costa clearly didn't like this idea, and surged ahead so quickly that this time, despite being the man to counter any individual moves in his original breakaway group, van Garderen couldn't follow.

Vinokourov soon passed van Garderen, and by the time da Costa passed beneath the flamme rouge signalling one kilometre to go, he could have turned his head and seen Vino.  But everyone was so focused on the battle for supremacy at the front that no one had noticed that the peloton was rearing its speedy head again.  Though no one wanted to pace the peloton towards actively chasing, the riders were moving very fast; so fast, in fact, that they'd made up all but a minute of da Costa's lead.

As Vinokourov passed under the flamme rouge himself, the peloton was suddenly there behind him, and Vino suddenly wasn't.  Though no-one could have hoped to catch Rui da Costa at that point, thus claiming Portugal a stage win for the second Tour in a row, the front of the peloton was now fighting it out for the other placings.  Philippe Gilbert suddenly found himself with the legs and went from behind, pounding right up to the finish line and claiming second place, 12 seconds behind da Costa.

But all eyes were on the front of the peloton, where Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador were eyeing each other off, neither ready to make the first move, Cadel Evans sitting right behind them.  Contador decided to go for it, but never got far with Andy clinging to his wheel like a limpet and Cadel still right behind him.  Riders began going past the three favourites in their elaborate dance of tactics, and suddenly Cadel decided this wasn't good enough.  One could almost see his thought process as he rode - "They're going right past us!  You guys don't wanna do anything about this?  Fine, I'll do it myself."  And suddenly Evans leapt forward onto the back of the riders surging ahead, so fast that Contador and Schleck seemed to stunned to follow.  Evans took third place on the stage, three seconds behind Gilbert, but he gained no time overall as the peloton followed him across the line.

Most unexpectedly for most (but not here!) Tour leader Thor Hushovd, best known as a sprinter, was able to keep pace with the main field all the way to Super-Besse and finished in the peloton, losing no time to the GC contenders and thus keeping his yellow jersey a  little longer.  Though clearly not able to wear the jersey through the Pyrenees, it now looks much more possible that Hushovd will wear his yellow up until we reach them.  And as for the three main boys?  Well, Cadel looks in spantabulous form this year, though Contador looks a bit off, and Andy is playing it far too cautious to tell yet.  But all will be clear when we reach the Pyrenees...